Doubts cast on Chicago police suspect's suicide

June 18, 2009

As far as Omar Sandoval's family is concerned, the bullet holes puncturing the ceiling of the attic tell the story of how he died this week.

They were told that Sandoval, 33, had killed himself Tuesday while he hid from Chicago police in a crawl space above the attic of their Southwest Side home. He apparently shot himself in the head, police said, but the family doesn't believe it.

"Both hands were under his head when they found him," said Sandoval's brother, Alfredo, 43. "How can you shoot yourself in that position?"

The Cook County medical examiner's office appeared to give credence to the family's suspicions Wednesday when an autopsy disclosed that Sandoval died of multiple gunshot wounds. Now the Independent Police Review Authority is sorting out the details.

What is known is that Sandoval was enraged Tuesday.

Neighbors heard him yelling and throwing things around. He'd broken up with his longtime girlfriend, the mother of his two children, and he was drunk, his brother said. Eventually, he fired gunshots in the kitchen, scaring his relatives.

"My mother was afraid he was going to do something crazy," the brother said. "When the police came, he got scared and went up to the attic to hide. They knew he had a gun."

Police said that when they arrived at about 5:45 p.m., Sandoval pointed a gun at officers, prompting them to open fire. But his brother questioned how the officers could have seen him with a gun because he was squeezed into the crawl space above the attic. The ceiling is now speckled with bullet holes the family believes were caused by police.

At about 9:30 p.m., the officers found Sandoval unresponsive in the crawl space "with a gun in hand and apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to head," a police statement said.

Noted forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden said an autopsy would typically determine whether someone died by his own hands.

"If the [wound] is not a contact wound, it's not likely to be self-inflicted," he said.

Baden said it's conceivable police at the scene may not have realized the extent of Sandoval's injuries.

"The reason we do an autopsy is because it is hard to identify a lot of things with the body's clothes on, with a lot of blood around," he said. "The medical examiner is in a lot better position to find the number of the gunshot wounds."

Sandoval was no stranger to authorities, according to his brother and court records. There was a warrant out for his arrest on a domestic battery case with his ex-girlfriend, the brother said. And court records show he had been sentenced to 4 years in prison in the 1990s for a weapons charge.

"He was afraid of the cops," the brother said. "He didn't want to go back to jail."

He said the family is second-guessing its decision to call police in the first place.

"He's a family member. How could you possibly want a family member to be shot?" he said. "Especially a son, a brother?"